Lunchtime Links: MF Global's UK staff were paid bonuses just before the company went bankrupt and they still have a company suite at the 02

The outlook is improving for some people at MF Global. The Telegraph says the metal trading team and the retail spread betting businesses have received approaches from rival brokerages who might be interested in buying them. For the rest, there is the company suite at the 02.

Someone has sent us the photograph below, purporting to show persons from MF Global hanging out in Suite 235 during the Red Hot Chilli Peppers gig at the O2 last night.

Admittedly, it doesn't look like a particularly wild event, but creditors may feel peeved if MF Global staff are enjoying themselves at their expense. KPMG, which is dealing with MF Global's estate was unable to comment as to whether this is the case. However, a spokesman for the O2 confirmed that MF Global does co-lease a suite at the arena and that the suite was indeed occupied last night. We suspect that the occupants were from the Man Group, but it appears that MF Global can still use the room if necessary.

The Telegraph also reports that MF Global staff received their quarterly bonuses last Monday, just prior to the company going into administration. So things aren't looking too bad over there by any means.

Morgan Stanley posted trading losses on 31 days in the third quarter; JPMorgan posted losses on 6 days; Bank of America posted losses on 20 days. (Bloomberg)

Société Générale has scrapped its dividend and is cutting bonuses by a "significant amount" to preserve capital. (Guardian)

Wall Street bonuses will fall 20-30% this year. (DealBook)

Bond traders are likely to take home as much as 45% less than in 2010, while equities traders and senior managers will see their bonuses 20% to 30% lower. (WSJ)

Traders and fund managers throughout Wall Street receive their massive remuneration for doing no better than would a chimpanzee flipping a coin. (Guardian)

George Osborne says implementing a Tobin Tax in Europe only would cost tens of thousands of jobs. (Guardian)

Lloyds make a 3.8bn loss for the first nine months, largely as a result of a previously announced 3.2bn provision for payment protection insurance. (Guardian)

What the demise of Bear, Lehman, Merrill, MF Global -- and the near collapses of Jefferies, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley (before the latter two became bank holding companies in September 2008) -- reveal in spades is that the short term funding model doesn't work. (Bloomberg)

If some mad professor wanted to conduct a cruel experiment in the psychology of stress, he couldn't do better than to replicate the corporate culture of Lloyds Banking Group. (Telegraph)

"Sometimes I have to turn round to people and say, 'look, you're going to die. You're going to burn out, you won't be in a job if you continue like this.' Sometimes, the BlackBerry has to be put in a cupboard and not answered at night." (The Times)

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: We should ban bonuses so that bankers will go back to being boring "lifers," with the chairman's income less than that of today's junior trader. (NY Times)

The route of tomorrow's march through London to Moorgate. (Indymedia)

Roubini claims the ECB is doubling its rate of bond purchases, yet as of today the Italian yield was hitting an unsustainable 6.74 percent. Here is Italian gdp growth since 1960...(Marginal Revolution)